This is the roster sheet for the Online Skype Practice League (OSPL) - Round 4, which will begin on Wednesday, January 4 and will run for five weeks. The winning team will receive free entry into a National History Bee state or regional tournament of their choice and be eligible to play in the OSPL Champions League in May. Please email director at historybowl dot com or send me a private message to sign up for OSPL Rd. 5. Sign up as soon as you can! Good Luck!

Last edited by Great Bustard on Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:38 pm, edited 23 times in total.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Bump as a friendly reminder to anyone interested. Email me or send me a private message to sign up!

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Update: The rule limiting 2 players per school has been scratched. Sign up today for the most competitive field of OSPL so far!

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

OSPL Round 4 is now closed. Nolan, your post came 3 hours after Collin sent me a private message claiming the last spot. If someone drops between now and Jan. 4, I'll let you know. Otherwise, Ian is first up on the Round 5 sign up list, to be posted soon.Btw, this is a phenomenal field, and I'm looking forward to some great matches. I'll set the teams probably by around Dec. 27; Greg will look them over briefly to try and ensure parity as best we can, before I post them. Note that there will be two more iterations of OSPL after this, and then the Champions League in May. OSPL will then take a hiatus until early August. We'll do it again next year for sure.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Just a suggestion, for next year, would it be possible to run one iteration that is specifically designated for novice players? I've had a couple of freshman on my team who are interested in playing OSPL, but who have been scared off by the ridiculously strong field.

Dripping Springs State Park wrote:Just a suggestion, for next year, would it be possible to run one iteration that is specifically designated for novice players? I've had a couple of freshman on my team who are interested in playing OSPL, but who have been scared off by the ridiculously strong field.

This is under discussion. I agree that some sort of differentiation is needed. The biggest issue being that each round of OSPL as is takes about 20 hours to coordinate/read for. so it's already 140 (w/champions league) free hours where we otherwise could be doing NHBB stuff we actually earn a living from. If others were interesting in volunteering as OSPL readers, this would become much more doable.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Rosters and schedule now posted. Happy Holidays from The National History Bee and Bowl and OSPL! Good luck!

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Dripping Springs State Park wrote:Just a suggestion, for next year, would it be possible to run one iteration that is specifically designated for novice players? I've had a couple of freshman on my team who are interested in playing OSPL, but who have been scared off by the ridiculously strong field.

This is under discussion. I agree that some sort of differentiation is needed. The biggest issue being that each round of OSPL as is takes about 20 hours to coordinate/read for. so it's already 140 (w/champions league) free hours where we otherwise could be doing NHBB stuff we actually earn a living from. If others were interesting in volunteering as OSPL readers, this would become much more doable.

I'd be willing to read for a novice format. I think I could convince Conor Teevens to do the same.

Collin ParksUniversity of Michigan '18

"Aragorn was the famed king of Gondor, while the Iberian kingdom was Aragon. Both parties were aware of this coincidence: we have a journal entry from Aragorn that expresses his anger at receiving mail meant for King Peter IV of Aragon for the umpteenth time."~ CommodoreCoCo

Somebody dropped, so email or private message me if you want to claim the final spot.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

That, btw, was ACF Regionals 2009 - packet by Brown Univ. Congratulations for surviving it - don't ever forget Gwawl! Next week, I'll tune it down a notch. Nice playing, though. Nikhil and Richard were the evening's top scorers. Ben's going to handle SQBS - I'll send him the sheets, and he'll get them up by this time next week. Til then.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Out of curiosity, how do you handle using such recent packets? 2009 ACF Regionals is a relatively recent high-profile tournament which I would expect a number of high school teams to have read. I'm not saying this to incite OMG CHEATING! accusations, but rather to ask how you handle such situations.

Yeah; this packet in particular may be problematic because a video of it can be found here. I am certain I saw this video some time ages ago (long enough that the memory of the exact questions in it escaped my head). I thought I was getting a little too lucky on this packet, and in retrospect it likely is because many of the clues from it had been drifting around in my head before. I sincerely apologize for not catching this error and will play a rematch/forfeit my score for this game if it is necessary.

Everybody: this is the Online Skype Practice League. With 24 really good players, it's almost impossible to find a good packet that nobody's read through. Unless you read a packet like, within the past month, don't worry about it if you have a vague recollection of it. If people want to pay for OSPL, then I could commission a set, but I don't think that's where we're going anytime soon. Max, I skipped the math because I overlooked it in the first game, and then stayed with that for the final 2 for consistency's sake. Going forward with OSPL, we're probably going to run 8 rounds of OSPL next year - 4 Varsity and 4 JV. Then the Champions League for each would have 4 teams. That would account for differentiation. Varsity and JV will be based on experience/ability, not year in school. I'll have the final say on who can play where, but again, that's for 2012-13, so that's a ways off.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Any possibility the time for the Igloos match could be changed to 930. I'm not free from 8:15 to 9:15 now.

Collin ParksUniversity of Michigan '18

"Aragorn was the famed king of Gondor, while the Iberian kingdom was Aragon. Both parties were aware of this coincidence: we have a journal entry from Aragorn that expresses his anger at receiving mail meant for King Peter IV of Aragon for the umpteenth time."~ CommodoreCoCo

OSPL Rd 4 is running on Thursday this week, since Greg, Nick, and I are all occupied tomorrow evening.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Sorry we're missing last weeks stats - I'll get them to Ben and post scores from last week on Sunday once I'm back in NJ. It's been a busy week.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Stats finally now complete. Note the earlier start times tomorrow. Teams 2-2 or better should plan on potentially playing in the final, since you still all have a shot at making it. There will be only one 4-1 team, since both 3-1 teams (Throats & Igloos) play each other.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad